NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

There are days, especially given the buffet of political rhetoric over the past few weeks, where I want to just quit my job and follow the presidential campaign in the United States full time. Normally, campaigns at this level, operate based on familiar assumptions. Very little happens, because both candidates, even if they attempt to demonize each other, accept certain basic principles about how their political positions are to be formed and defended. Bernie Sanders to some extent upset things this time around, by pushing a number of ideas and programs to the center, making the Democratic party as a whole contend with them. Trump however has changed everything, simply because of his refusal or inability to play the political games that politicians normally play. I don't mean that as a compliment, as many of his supporters like to point out. There is something attractive about that in certain candidates, as it seems like they would be able to offer a chance to break

The image above is drawn from the universe of Starcraft 2 or as I refer to it in Chamorro " Sahyan Estreyas Dos."      One of the reasons the Chamorro language is dying is because it isn’t used for that many things. I try my best in my personal and professional life to use the language for everything or for as many things as I can. This is one instance. Many Chamorros today will draw a line between their "Chamorro" side or their Chamorro identity and the popular cultural forms, such as video games, movies, books, comics and so on, that they enjoy on a day to day basis in what they often feel is very fundamentally different. For me though, those other popular cultural things are not the enemy of the Chamorro language, but universes and domains in which we can extend the language into, find ways to make it at home there, and to expand our own possibilities with our language. Make no mistake, the Chamorro language is a real language, but over the past century,

It is now less than a year til Guam hosts FESTPAC or the largest cultural festival in the Pacific. I am involved in FESTPAC in a number of forms and there are some ways that we are clearly ready and on course and others where ai adai it seems like it'll take a miracle for us to make it on time.  Para i taotao ni' muna'la'la'la' yan chumochonnek mo'na i kuttura-ta (gi meggai na manera) este na dinana' i mas takhilo', i mas sagradu na tiempo. Kada kuatro na sakkan mandadana' i taotaogues i Pasifiku gi unu na isla, ya manafa'nu'i yan manapatte i kutturan-niha. Un sen dangkolu na onra este na para ta kombida taotao ginen kana trenta diferentes na isla siha magi para i tano'-ta.  For those of you who would like to receive regular updates about FESTPAC, its planning and organizing go on Facebook and LIKE the official FESTPAC page. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/guamfestpac2016 Or, each Friday the Pacific Daily News i

Cloud Atlas was by far my favorite film of 2012. It was a film I only saw once, but wanted to watch again immediately after I left the theatre. Part of this is due to the fact that a group of actors play multiple roles in different historical eras. Some of them are obvious, others aren’t so clear. The film becomes a type of game trying to figure out who is who. In the credits they flash on the screen each actor and all their roles. You realize then how many you recognized and how many zipped before your vision but you didn’t recognize them. The story itself is complicated and so that might also create that desire. You want to see it again because there may be a section you didn’t quite catch or weren’t quite sure about. At certain points the jumping across times can be confusing, especially towards the beginning when you don’t quite have your bearings yet. As one of the characters in the film states, a half finished book is like an unfinished love affair. It

Dave Davis is a name that is synonymous on Guam with racist rhetoric aimed at Chamorros. He wrote letters to the editor of the PDN for many years and somewhere along the way was given a regular column in the Marianas Variety which he calls very warmly "The Outsider Perspective." In his column he regularly attacks the Government of Guam, Chamorro culture, Chamorro activists, and people who use Federal social services. These are things that everyone on Guam regularly assaults verbally, but the difference is that most people save those conversations for when they are amongst people they know agree with them and can therefore enjoy all the pleasures of racist rhetoric without fear of someone saying "Taimanu un atotga sumangan ennao!" But what makes Davis particularly odious for most people on Guam is that he doesn't only attack those who people usually attack, but he does also take glee in attempting to eviscerate Chamorro culture. He enjoys arguing that there is

(This image comes from Guam Zombie , click the link to see more). For the past week everyone, their grandmother, second cousin and achakma' have been asking me to weigh in on the debate over Chamorro vs. Guamanian. I ended up writing a very quick column for the Marianas Variety about the issue. I spent some time in one of my classes discussing it and ended up emailing back and forth with many people who feel angry and confused about the issue. Part of the anger and confusion was from Chamorros who feel like they are being erased in the rhetoric of the new administration on Guam which loves using the term Guamanian to refer to everyone on Guam, including Chamorros, basically saying that they are a group just like any others on Guam. The other anger and confusion was from young Chamorros and non-Chamorros who like using the term Guamanian and don't like being told that it is wrong to use it. For them, the term doesn't erase Chamorros, but is just something meant to refer

I have been working recently with a group of people who are pushing for indigenous fishing rights. It is a complicated issue which few people on Guam really understand but tend to reduce to racist and supremacist caricatures. Those who oppose fishing rights for Chamorros, say it is just stupid racism which will lead to the over harvesting of our natural resources. Those who support it tend to say that Chamorros, all Chamorro, simply because they are Chamorro know how to protect their resources and that they should be free to enjoy their waters to their heart's content. Both positions are not really helpful to the issue at hand, and so I've often been irritated at how this issue should not be as contentious as it should be. It cuts right to the middle of American colonialism and multiculturalism and how these things restrict life on Guam, inhibit our ability to even imagine what life can be like. We become trapped in the way America is supposed to be, its limits and everytime we

A great post below from The Drowning Mermaid , titled " Desiree, Be a Lady ." My favorite line is this one: "The "melting pot," the "my land is your land, from California to blah blah blah blah" (I never bothered to learn that song) is only fun, positive, or happy when you are not the one losing yourself, or if you are not the one acting as the gracious host for someone rich and powerful enough to hit you over the head for not being enthusiastic about "sharing." It's not fun or easy to accept if the brand of "unity" they are pushing always forces you to "accept," while they "come together." The problem with decolonization in today's "multicultural" world is that there is so much pressure to give in, to let the prevailing powers, prevail. To give in and let the way things are continue as they are, since to challenge things or try to change things would mean making people feel uncomfortable,

I wrote a letter to the editor of The Pacific Daily News about why it seemed that only Chamorros are the one's on Guam who care about things such as decolonization, militarization, colonialism, imperialism, human rights and so on. My response was a pragmatic one, no real suprises there. This is the homeland of the Chamorro people, it has been there home for centuries, for millenia, and so regardless of how much you love the United States, and sleep with caressing your US passport each night, the cold-hard truth is that this land was taken from the Chamorro people in the 17th century, and different colonizers have come up with different claims to owning the island, but they all just try to cover over or legitimize the same old colonial wound. Just like with Native Americans and their various forms of loss and colonial trauma, they may find everyday ways to act like it doesn't matter, or it was all for the better, but it still hurts and there will always be a way in which the cur